SWOT analysis of Mumbai Indians for IPL 2025

It has been a total of five years since Mumbai Indians (MI) lifted their last Indian Premier League (IPL) trophy after they defeated Delhi Capitals during the finals in 2020 when the entire tournament was hosted in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Alongside Chennai Super Kings (CSK), Mumbai Indians are the most successful team in the IPL history having won as many as five titles in 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2020. However, things went extremely downtown for the five-time champions in the previous edition of the IPL where Mumbai Indians finished with the wooden spoon. Mumbai Indians witnessed a big turmoil during IPL 2024 season where there were multiple reports of a possible rift between some of the senior players and as a result, MI managed to win just 4 games and suffered as many as 10 losses. But it seems that the possible rift and all the clarifications have been made and they have formed a pretty balanced unit for the upcoming IPL 2025 season. 

Strength: Strongest Indian core in IPL 2025

Over the years, it has been observed that the Mumbai Indians team management have had the habit to invest more in Indian players whether it be youngsters like Hardik Pandya, Ishan Kishan, Jasprit Bumrah or senior players like Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav and many more. For the upcoming IPL 2025 season, MI's main strength lies in their strongest Indian core of players like skipper Hardik Pandya, Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah and Tilak Varma. Their batting order looks pretty much sorted with much of firepower both in the top and middle-order. In order to bring home their sixth IPL trophy, the batting form of Rohit, Suryakumar and Hardik will be really crucial for the Mumbai Indians. This strong Indian group also allows MI to be a little flexible with their choice of overseas players. 

Weakness: Lack of options in the spin attack

After the departure of spinners like Harbhajan Singh and Krunal Pandya, Mumbai Indians have struggled to find wicket-taking spinners in the previous few seasons of the IPL. During the IPL 2025 mega auction, Mumbai Indians picked as many as three spinners, Mitchell Santner, Karn Sharma and Allah Ghazanfar. Unfortunately, Ghazanfar has already been ruled out due to injury and MI has picked another Afghan spinner in Mujeeb Ur Rahman. While looking at the combination, two out of these three spinners are expected to start in the MI playing XI right from their first game against Chennai Super Kings scheduled to take place on 23 March, 2025 in an away fixture. Although the duo of Santner and Karn are vastly experienced, but Mumbai Indians are still lacking any back-up options. 

Opportunity for youngsters like Will Jacks, Robin Minz

Just like the previous IPL seasons, Mumbai Indians have once again shown faith in a few young, talented cricketers like Will Jacks, Ryan Rickelton, Robin Minz, Naman Dhir and many more. All of these four players are expected to be part of the Mumbai Indians playing 11 during this IPL 2025 season. Naman had an impressive start to his IPL career last year where he contributed with some crucial performances with the bat. On the other hand, Will Jacks smacked a superb century while playing for the Royal Challengers Bengaluru in IPL 2024. Ryan Rickelton has impressed the MI team management in the recently concluded SA20 tournament while Robin Minz has done really well in the Indian domestic circuit. One of Jacks or Rickelton is expected to open the batting for MI alongside Rohit Sharma. 

Threat: Jasprit Bumrah injury can prove to be a big setback

According to the current reports, Mumbai Indians' premier speedster Jasprit Bumrah is very much likely to be unavailable for the first few games of the Indian Premier League 2025 season. This will prove to be a huge setback for the five-time champions especially with respect to their playing combination. Mumbai Indians will also not have the services of pace-bowling all-rounder Hardik in the first game due to his slow over-rate ban. This will definitely put a lot of pressure on the pace duo of Trent Boult and Deepak Chahar who will be playing the lead role. In the absence of Bumrah, MI also have the options of three left-arm pacers in Reece Topley, Arjun Tendulkar and Ashwani Kumar. 

MI IPL 2025 Squad

Hardik Pandya (C), Jasprit Bumrah, Suryakumar Yadav, Rohit Sharma, Tilak Varma, Trent Boult, Naman Dhir, Robin Minz, Karn Sharma, Ryan Rickelton, Deepak Chahar, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Will Jacks, Ashwani Kumar, Mitchell Santner, Reece Topley, Shrijith Krishnan, Raj Angad Bawa, Satyanarayana Raju, Bevan Jacobs, Lizaad Williams, Arjun Tendulkar, Vignesh Puthur.